Liverpool FC owners pledge: We will not sell club
LIVERPOOL FC owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have told friends they have no “interest whatsoever” in selling their shares in the club.
They made their stance plain to friends and business associates after it was reported at the weekend that Dubai International Capital, who were bid rivals at the time Hicks and Gillett bought the club, were poised to take over because the Americans were allegedly having problems re-financing the debt taken out to buy Liverpool.
Last night, a source familiar with the situation said the report, which also claimed Rafael Benitez had been given until the end of the season before he was fired, was “utter nonsense”.
The source said that, early next month,Hicks and Gillett hoped to refinance the debt when they bought Liverpool in February.
They are also going to finalise their stadium design choice “between two world-class alternatives” before Saturday, January 12, said the source.
It comes after Hicks and Gillett were forced to scrap a futuristic stadium design because costs had soared.
The pair are also playing down the reported rise in stadium costs. It had been reported that the cost of the stadium had risen to £450m from £300m.
The source said stadium project costs crept up from a low £300m figure to mid-£300m number. It was only after that the owners told the architects to “value engineer” the scheme back down to the £300m mark. Last night, a source told the Daily Post: “Hicks and Gillett expect to close their new financ- ing in early January, and to finalise their stadium design choice between two world-class alternatives before January 12.Š
“They have no interest whatsoever in selling any shares, and Rafa and the owners have smoothed over a minor miscom- munication that the media blew way out of proportion.”
Dallas architects HKS, who were behind the spec- tacular proposals revealed in July, have been told to make their plan cheaper and probably less impres- sive. That stadium had the capacity to be expanded to 76,000.
And Manchester-based AFL, which was behind a previous proposal rejected by Hicks and Gillett because it was “obsolete”, was told to improve on its scheme for Stanley Park.
Both revised plans would have a capacity of around 70,000.
It is understood Hicks and Gillett are expected to re-finance the £220m loan used to buy the club.
The new £350m loan with the Royal Bank of Scotland would include £60m to get work on the new stadium started and £25m to cover the cost of last summer’s signings.
Despite this, stadium plans are apparently proceeding according to a revised schedule (that would see the new ground open in time for the 2011/12 season) in terms of the planning, design and initial construction.
